What is inherently wrong with meats like salami, hams, etc. What in the “processing” process makes them all less desirable than their fresh counterparts.
Seems like this is often a recommendation but I’ve never really understood why it’s looked at as “unhealthy”
preservatives, additives, fillers, emulsifiers, stabilizers, thickeners, colors, gelling & caking agents, nitrites.
ALL THIS to prevent or inhibit spoilage of food due to fungi, bacteria and other microorganisms growing on it.
To create a smooth texture, adding flavor and color for improving taste and appearance, prevent separation and extend shelf life, so it takes months to spoil, if at all.
Now imagine our body’s gut and microbiome, along with the stomach and intestine have to somehow process this and break it down effeciently for fuel when all the microorganisms of the world can’t touch it or break it down.
And imagine this accumulating over time in the intestine because the body can’t efficiently flush it out either.
THIS is the perfect environment for chronic infection and disease to occur.
WHO report says eating processed meat is carcinogenic: Understanding the findings
It absolutely depends on where and how it’s processed. For instance, I process my own wild game and add nothing other than pork fat as a binder when processing(grinding) burger for cooking. Not one preservative, or filler, or chemical. Whenever I bring meat to my butcher, it’s the exact same process.
Couple of reasons:
First - consumption of processed meats is usually indicative of an unhealthy lifestyle. Not a causation, just a correlation;
Second - there is a strong and convincing evidence that consumption of processed meats is linked to high blood pressure, heart disease, COPD, and digestive system cancers. Again, not causation, but strong correlation; and
Third - some nitrite compounds are believed to be carcinogenic. Meats (usually grilled) at a high temperature form these compounds in higher amounts.
There is A LOT of information out there, and it covers a pretty broad range. The science certainly isn’t settled, but it’s generally accepted now that the evidence supports processed meats as being less healthy than their unprocessed counterparts.
Not just those but other processed meats like chicken nuggets are included in that, too. But in this case, things like bacon, hotdogs, deli meats, pepperoni…the methods used in preserving them increase the chance of getting colon cancer from eating them to a degree that it’s noteworthy. Nitrates specifically. But they are also high in unhealthy fats and very high in salt, too, so are contributors to other diseases.
As with anything, enjoying a hot dog on the 4th of July won’t kill you. Eating processed meat too often raises your risk.
Due to the nitrites, or n-nitrosos compounds, my husband used to work at a food plant and indeed they have to add to many additives and more salt so they can last more.
Everything that is smoked, cured goes through the same process.
n-nitrosos are linked to cancer and other diseases.
Nitrites! Nearly all processed meats contain preservatives that aren’t added to non-processed meats. Nitrites are considered to be carcinogenic if you have too much of them. The exception is mince if you get it fresh from the butcher. Bacon contains nitrites as well.
The other issue is that for the weight of meat you buy, processed meats will usually contain far more fat and salt, along with all those preservatives.
They are very high in salt and fat, especially saturated fat, which most people should consume in moderation. The daily recommended dose of saturated fat is less than 20g for most people. and the daily recommended salt intake is less than 6g. If you look at the nutritional information of something like salami, 100g of that has like 3g of salt and 40g of fat, out of which maybe a third are saturated. Also, they tend to have lots of additives to make them last longer and since the meat is highly processed some of the vitamins and minerals may be lost.
Not to mention that deli meats are ground and reformed, so there’s no way of knowing exactly what parts of the animal you are consuming. If it specifically says 100% chicken breast or something then it’s probably all chicken breast. But god knows what animal parts went into the grinder for balogne, hot dogs, or anything with the word “loaf” at the end of it.
Not properly fed, most meat you find in stores in grain fed, animals such as cows don’t eat grain they eat grass, another example would be chicken, chicken dont just eat seeds and such they’re omnivores they eat meat too
Ive heard that in processed foods, even if they have nutritional value like protein, the body doesn’t know how to digest it and just stores it as fat. Not sure how much merit this claim has though, because it doesn’t intuitively make sense that your body could convert it to fat but not preserve it. Idk.